"If it goes really well, he could possibly be back. But we're not holding our breath on that."

The All Blacks have won their last 17 tests and have equaled the 17-Test winning runs of the 1965-69 All Blacks and 1997-98 Springboks and if they win on Saturday they will make history.

All Black captain Richie McCaw said that he was not concerned about Fekitoa stepping up to cover for Smith.

"It's happened enough times over the past and just look at the last Test we played where Conrad broke his thumb so... Malakai was the last guy who played at centre in our last Test so him slotting in will be fine," McCaw said.

"At the end of the day, if you let those things influence what happens on the weekend, I think you haven't really got your environment set up right.

"So hopefully everyone's aware of what's going on and prepared as such and they'll be ready to go."

McCaw appeared to be more concerned about getting redemption for the Crusaders last minute loss to the Waratahs in the Super Rugby final.

The Waratahs won the Super Rugby title with a late Bernard Foley penalty that came from a last-minute ruck infringement by McCaw.

"Just from a personal point of view, being over here a couple of weeks ago for Super Rugby, to get a chance to come back, have a crack at Bledisloe is pretty exciting," McCaw said.

"It's going to be a good challenge. I think we always realised that, so we're looking forward to it.

"The Wallabies are like us. They had three Tests in June that went alright -- three wins -- but now with the season ahead, everyone wants to get off to a good start.

"So we certainly need to improve from where we were at and I'm sure from what you hear from the Wallabies, they need to do the same. That makes for a pretty good match-up over the next couple of weeks."

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said that while Fekitoa had a "cracking year with the Highlanders" they would target he rookie international centre.

"We understand it's a new player who will come in -- Fekitoa -- and you've got to try out those areas and see what you do," Hooper told reporters.